Malfuzat – Volume III — Page 130
130 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad with light, whereafter they advance towards God at light speed. ” The Seeker: Your Holiness, I am not a follower of any religion. His Holiness as : If someone determines for themselves that they will not believe in anything, I can say nothing—what can I possibly say? However, a sensible individual must compel themselves to follow a path of some sort. What Is Religion? What is religion? It is the path that a person adopts for themselves. Every indi- vidual must follow a ‘religion. ’ Even a non-religious person who does not believe in God must follow some path, and that path is ‘religion. ’ However, what calls for reflection is whether the path that an individual has chosen for themselves is one which leads to true perseverance, eternal bliss and joy, and never-ending tranquillity. You see, the Arabic word for religion is madh-hab and this is a general term. The literal meaning of this word is ‘where one walks,’ i. e. a path, and this is not specific to faith and religion alone. In every field and science, in geology, natural science, medicine, astronomy, and in other disciplines as well, experts all hold a madh-hab , i. e. a school of thought. No one can escape this because this is neces- sary for all human beings. Just as the human soul requires a body, and meaning requires words and expression, in the same way, all people are bound by a ‘reli- gion’ or set of beliefs to which they subscribe. My objective is not to debate in this instance whether people proclaim the name Allah, or God, or Parmeshwar. My purpose at present is only to shine a light upon what people understand of the respective beings whom they call upon. I say you can use whatever name you please, but my question is how do you describe that being? What attributes do you ascribe to that being? The issue of divine attributes is one of primary signifi- cance and requires contemplation. The Seeker: My understanding is that the purpose of religion is to rectify and reform a person’s inherent nature. His Holiness as : Let us take the example of a king. For example, there is King Edward VII. Now, we could refer to some other person by this title, but we would do so artificially, and this would not make them so. My only desire is for people to recognise the True God and to forsake all other forms of p. 116